Finally Locating the American Girl Mine after a second Fail due to Google Maps

Today, since google maps had told me I'd turned around yesterday a mere .6 miles from the American Girl Mine; I decided to give it another go.

This time though, after riding to the .6 mile point, I parked Yagi, my TW200 and walked the rest of the way to where Google was saying the mine was located.

This was the washout that had stopped me yesterday.  It doesn't look steep but I couldn't even walk down it without slipping too much.  I had to go off to the side a bit to get down.

The rest of the .6 miles that lay ahead of me, steep, rock-strewn and rutted:

I get to the destination, no mine!  In fact, once I wandered about a bit and get a cell signal, google maps was telling me I now had over five miles to go!  WTH.

This is what I saw from the top of the "pass" where the mine was supposed to be:

I walked down the above trail a bit, to get this shot of the valley below where google maps was now saying I had to go.

Obviously, google maps was confused.  So I walked back to Yagi and negotiated the sketchy washouts I'd gone through to get to the bad destination.

Once back in the campsite area, I decided to "wing it" and try and find the American Girl Mine using basic map navigation.  I kept an eye on where google maps said I was, and I headed in what I thought was the general direction of the mine's location as reported by Google.

Google Map continued to insist that I use the route I'd already tried and had discarded.  Eventually, I found the mine!  The water filled pit was a dead giveaway.

American Girl Mine is now a large open pit mine complex.  There must have been a bunch of gold here, to justify the efforts and equipment involved in creating this:

There was a rough trail leading down into the open mine pit, all the way to the water:

As I had walked about near the water, I'd spied four people walking on the top of the rim.  Curious, I located them once I had gotten out of the mine pit and took this picture:

I think, they were digging up dirt that they believed contained gold ore.  They took four 5 Gallon buckets of the stuff back to their car.  I guess they'll sift through it somewhere else where they've access to water.

One last look at the open pit mine that is

the American Girl Mine

The rest of the day was spent around camp.  Temperatures would climb to the low 80s and it felt great!  Even when there were wind gusts, they were warm wind gusts!  Best of all, the one remaining RV within line of sight of me, left!  No one now within easy sight of my camp.  Good stuff.

A Failed Ride to the American Girl Mine and another visit to the Center of the World

The objective when I started the ride on my TW200, Yagi, was to ride to the American Girl Mine to see what was there.  The mine was a source of gold back in the day.

According to Google maps it was 1.8 mi from my campsite so what the hell, why not?

What I found was that the road would turn very sketchy about halfway there, with large loose rocks in ruts, steep slopes up and down and just generally uncomfortable conditions.

I chickened out at .6 miles from the mine when the road went down a steep steep steep incline filled with rocks and loose gravel!  

I was so unnerved by this section that I just quickly turned around and started making my way back, even without taking a picture of the steep sloping trail!

Here's some views on the way back:

I also stopped to take pictures of a couple of open pit mines, I think operated currently by AJ Mix.  At least, that's what the logo said on the equipment within the fenced area.

Large size pano of the open pit mine/quarry

Later that morning, I took Scarlett, my Ural Patrol, to revisit the Museum of History in Granite.  It's also the "official" Center of the World.  In short, as I understand it, they were the first to claim it and have the claim recognized.

I'd been there before back in March of 2020: LINK

A review here: LINK

This time, I was going for more artsy/symmetry views of the complex.  

Screen shot from Google Maps

The marker for the Center of the World resides inside

A small church on the hill can be seen for miles

Inside the church

Looking back towards the

pyramid from inside the church

Another view of the marker

As during the previous visit, some of the panels that caught my eye:

I returned to camp by 1:00 PM and would relax the rest of the afternoon away.

Yagi is ready for more riding, Signs of Spring and a video from the Z's

Sunny and warm today, light breezes and high temperatures in the low 70s, basically ideal weather.

I took Yagi, my recently repaired TW200 motorcycle out for a test ride.  She sounded good, no loud tapping noises anymore and her usual peppy performance is back!

I really lucked out, finding that missing lock nut for the intake valve's tappet!

Part of the test ride was to wander about the area, through parts I'd not ridden through before:

The local flora is beginning to exhibit signs of Spring:

Meanwhile, to the north of my location, Chris and Lori are camping on their own, as we both plan to meet up again later in April.  Here's a drone video from Lori:

Here's a look at their Overlander, Stewie, sporting its new old stock (NOS) ties recently installed.  One of their two spare tires is mounted on the front rack for now:

Tonight's sunset was pretty good:

Yagi's Nut is Found

After a lengthy chat session with what I shall now call the TW 200 repair brain trust; I said about once again fishing for the missing lock nut for the intake valve on my TW200.

I dropped her, intentionally, onto her right side in order to try and dislodge the nut from wherever it was hiding.  (I would drop her several times throughout this process).

At first, I didn't think anything happened, so I set about doing a video.  I wanted to show the brain trust the chamber containing the intake valve spring, and movement of part of the cam.

Instead, as I was positioning the camera to take the video, I saw the damn nut on the phone's screen!

If you don't see it easily in the video above, here says screenshot with an arrow pointing to it:

The nut prove to be lodged quite tightly in the crevice where it had fallen. I would end up trying multiple tools to try and dislodge it with no success.

I even tried, dropping her on her left side, thinking perhaps that would help dislodge the nut.  Nope, and for future reference one should put the cover back onto the crankshaft cover but before dropping a TW200 onto its left, since oil will spill out otherwise!  DAMHIK.  I had the cover off so I could put a 17mm socket on the nut that turns the crank.

3 and 1/2 Joy filled hours later, I hit upon the idea to use forceps. Eventually I got the right angle and then the nut came loose enough that the magnetic pickup tool was able to grab it!  Bonus: it also grabbed the tip of the forceps that had broken off and that I had not noticed!

And there was much rejoicing!  I informed the brain trust and thanked them for their help and patience.  I couldn't have done it without them.

Got everything put back together, and I use Loctite ( blue ) on the lock nut on the intake valve just to make sure. The test ride will be tomorrow after it has had a chance to cure overnight.

For record, exhaust clearance was spot on at 0.006 in and intake clearance is now 0.003 in where the spec is 0.002 through 0.004.

I also have to buy a new oil filter and more oil for Yagi since I am sure dust and dirt got into the engine while things were open.  I am in the middle of a desert after all!  :)

I basically rested away the rest of the day, though there was a short ride with Scarlett, my Ural Patrol Sidecar, just for some exercise.  It was mostly cloudy with a chill wind, a wind that had blown most of the day.

Tonight's sunset was "meh".

Supposed to be sunny and warmer tomorrow, I sure hope so.  I also hope that Yagi's test ride goes well, keep your fingers crossed!